Defendant asks US Marshals to drag Righthaven principals to court

Copyright trolling firm Righthaven reached a new low on Monday as an opponent …

The copyright trolling firm Righthaven hit a new low on Monday when one of its targets sought to have a US Marshal drag Righthaven officers into court to explain their failure to comply with a previous court order.

When we began covering Righthaven last year, the firm seemed like it could pose a serious threat to fair use online. But 2011 hasn't been kind to the company, as it has experienced setback after setback in the courts. At this point, there's little question that Righthaven will be driven into bankruptcy. The only question is how soon it will happen

Monday's filing suggests the answer is "soon." It was made by the Randazza Legal Group, which represented one of the first defendants to win in court against Righthaven. In August, a judge ordered Righthaven to pay Randazza $34,045.50 to cover the costs of defending against its frivolous lawsuit. But last week, after learning that Righthaven had less than $1,000 left in the bank, the courts ordered Righthaven to turn over its intellectual property to help it pay its legal bills.

Monday was the deadline to comply with that order, and Righthaven's principals, Stephen and Raisha Gibson, seem to have completely ignored the order. They didn't comply with the order, but neither did they appeal it, ask for more time to comply, or declare bankruptcy. So late Monday afternoon Randazza filed a motion asking the court to order US Marshals to take the Gibsons into custody so they can be compelled to transfer Righthaven's copyrights.

These copyrights will be auctioned off to pay Righthavens mounting legal bills. The proceeds of these auctions are likely to fall tens of thousands of dollars short of what Righthaven owes, forcing the once-imposing copyright troll into bankruptcy.

Timothy B. Lee
Timothy covers tech policy for Ars, with a particular focus on patent and copyright law, privacy, free speech, and open government. His writing has appeared in Slate, Reason, Wired, and the New York Times. Emailtimothy.lee@arstechnica.com//Twitter@binarybits